Shanghai Moonton Technology Co. Ltd. (Chinese: 上海沐瞳科技有限公司), doing business as Moonton, is a Chinese video game developer and publisher from Shanghai that is known for its games within the Mobile Legends universe. It worked as independent company until being acquired by Nuverse, a video game subsidiary of ByteDance on March 2021.[1]
History
The company was initially called YoungJoy Technology Limited.
Moonton's first video game, the tower defense (TD) game Magic Rush: Heroes, was released on 6 April 2015. Mobile Legends began development when following the completion of Magic Rush: Heroes. Mobile Legends was released as Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA in 2016, and became popular in Southeast Asia, notably in Indonesia and Malaysia, where it was the most-downloaded free mobile game app among iPhone users in 2017. The game is distributed by Elex Tech in the United States.
Riot Games suspected that Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA infringed on the intellectual property League of Legends, and demanded that Google remove the game from Google Play and App Store. Moonton removed the game before Google could act and eventually relaunched it as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang on 9 November 2016. In July 2017, Riot Games filed a lawsuit against Moonton over copyright infringement, citing similarities between Magic Rush and Mobile Legends against League of Legends. The case was dismissed by Central District Court of California in the United States on account of forum non conveniens.
Tencent, the parent of Riot Games, followed with a separate lawsuit in Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court against Xu Zhenhua - previously a senior Tencent employee - for violating non-competition agreements. Tencent won the lawsuit in July 2018 and was awarded a settlement of $2.9 million.
On 22 March 2021, the developer of TikTok, BABE, Resso and Lark ByteDance, through its video game subsidiary Nuverse, acquired Moonton for $4 billion. ByteDance reportedly won over a bid from Tencent.
Apps
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
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Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) developed and published by Moonton. Released in 2016, the game has become popular in Southeast Asia and was among the games chosen for the first medal event esports competition at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines.
Mobile Legends: Adventure
Mobile Legends: Adventure is the sequel to the addicting Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. It features a 2-dimensional environment and anime-inspired characters, shorter gameplay, disappearance of bases and heroes' skins, a lot of resources, equipment, etc. to collect, idle mode and rewards, almost infinitely upgrading heroes, 5v5 matches played by a single player, a map of the Land of Dawn on campaigns, arena; which is similar to rank, automatic battle system, Tower of Babel, Time Portal, Labyrinth, Tavern, Market, more than 100 heroes and creatures to encounter and fight, and a lot more to come.
Sweet Crossing: Snake.io
Sweet Crossing: Snake.io is a casual snake game. Different from traditional snake games, the game enables you to enjoy more fun with its 2.5D graphics. Enjoy a pure moment of bliss with the smooth gameplay and a variety of cute characters! (Translated by ReynContext)
Indonesian (Original):
Game io kasual pertama Moonton! Game ular pemakan permen yang kasual! Sweet Crossing: Snake.io adalah Game ular kasual. Tidak seperti Game ular tradisional, Game ini lebih menyenangkan dengan grafik 2.5D-nya. Nikmati momen menyenangkan dengan Gameplay lancar serta berbagai karakter imut!